MOSCOW, September 22. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia hopes that the process of working out a legal status of the Caspian Sea will get a significant boost following the 4th Caspian Summit, due to be held in Russia’s Astrakhan on September 29, a Russian special presidential envoy said on Monday.

In an interview with Caspian Energy magazine Igor Bratchikov, Russia’s special presidential envoy for the delimitation and demarcation of borders with CIS states, said “Every summit is considering the results of what has been already done and the opportunity to give an incentive to the development of relations.”

“The Caspian Summit is no exception in this regard,” he said. “The last summit of the heads of state of the Caspian Sea region was hosted in 2010, Baku. Since then a big job has been done to coordinate principles of a five-sided cooperation in the sea, which shall underlie a future convention on legal status of the Caspian Sea. In Astrakhan we are to examine and fix the results of this job, and also set up priorities of a five-sided cooperation for a period until the next summit.”

The five-sided cooperation mentioned by Bratchikov comprises five littoral states of the Caspian Sea and they are Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

“As far as the first part of your question is concerned, a number of intergovernmental agreements are ready, targeting promotion of the cooperation between the Caspian countries in certain areas, including preservation and rational use of bioresources of the sea, prevention and elimination of emergency situations in the Caspian Sea, hydrometeorology,” Bratchikov said.

“I believe the 18-year long process of working on a new legal status of the Caspian Sea would get a required acceleration after Astrakhan,” the presidential envoy added.

The official said that the main focus of Russia in the upcoming summit will embrace legislative, economic and environmental aspects with the aim of shaping up a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

“A convention on legal status of the Caspian Sea is to be a core document for a five-sided cooperation,” he said. “Nothing but a convention should create a reliable mechanism for protecting of sovereign rights of the littoral states in the Caspian Sea.”

“Let me suggest that environmental problems, joint economic projects, cooperation between the five states in the field of politics will be included in the agenda of talks between the presidents in Astrakhan as well as still unsettled legal issues on the Caspian Sea,” he added.